<p>Tensions flared on the Jamia Millia Islamia campus in Delhi&nbsp;after a clash broke out during Diwali celebrations&nbsp;on Tuesday night. The incident led to police being deployed&nbsp;outside the campus as a precautionary measure, reported news agency PTI. The video footage of the ruckus is circulating on social media.</p>

<p>In a video, a group can be seen chanting slogans during the rangoli event on the Jamia campus. Some students claimed that a group also chanted ‘Palestine Zindabad’ and disrupted the Diwali festivities, reported Hindustan Times. However, these claims could not be verified.</p>

<p><strong>Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/x-abetting-crime-indian-govt-blasts-social-media-platforms-over-hoax-flight-bomb-threats-769975">'X abetting crime': Indian govt blasts social media platforms over hoax flight bomb threats</a></strong></p>

<p>While the altercation created chaos on the university campus, authorities have confirmed that the situation was de-escalated and both groups left peacefully.</p>

<p>The incident occurred during the annual Diwali celebrations organised by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student body of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).</p>

<p>The conflict happened after people from a certain group allegedly disrupted the festivities and ruined the rangolis prepared by students. They also allegedly kicked diyas with their feet, which led to the clash between the two groups, The Indian Express reported.</p>

<p><strong>Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/cyclone-dana-to-make-landfall-in-odisha-bengal-on-oct-25-check-updates-769943">Cyclone Dana to make landfall in Odisha, Bengal on Oct 25 | Check updates</a></strong></p>

<h2>Police deployed outside Jamia campus</h2>

<p>“The incident occurred around 7:30-8 pm near gate 7. A group of students affiliated with the ABVP were putting up diyas and making rangolis for Diwali, which displeased another group of students. The other group wrecked the decorations, which led to a scuffle. Both sides engaged in sloganeering,” Deputy Commissioner of Police Southeast Ravi Kumar told The Indian Express.</p>

<p>“Police were deployed to maintain the peace; they are stationed there for the night as a precautionary measure. Students were ordered to disperse and the crowd left by 9 pm.”</p>

<p>Officials said the situation on Jamia campus is still being monitored though there have been no&nbsp;reports of any further disturbance.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Videos of the ruckus being shared on social media show&nbsp;people chanting slogans during the event.&nbsp;</p>

<p><em>(With inputs from agencies)</em></p>


Tensions flared on the Jamia Millia Islamia campus in Delhi after a clash broke out during Diwali celebrations on Tuesday night. The incident led to police being deployed outside the campus as a precautionary measure, reported news agency PTI.

Tensions flared on the Jamia Millia Islamia campus in Delhi after a clash broke out during Diwali celebrations on Tuesday night. The incident led to police being deployed outside the campus as a precautionary measure, reported news agency PTI. The video footage of the ruckus is circulating on social media. In a video, a group can be seen chanting slogans during the rangoli event on the Jamia campus. Some students claimed that a group also chanted ‘Palestine Zindabad’ and disrupted the Diwali festivities, reported Hindustan Times. However, these claims could not be verified. Also read | 'X abetting crime': Indian govt blasts social media platforms over hoax flight bomb threats While the altercation created chaos on the university campus, authorities have confirmed that the situation was de-escalated and both groups left peacefully. The incident occurred during the annual Diwali celebrations organised by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student body of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The conflict happened after people from a certain group allegedly disrupted the festivities and ruined the rangolis prepared by students. They also allegedly kicked diyas with their feet, which led to the clash between the two groups, The Indian Express reported. Also read | Cyclone Dana to make landfall in Odisha, Bengal on Oct 25 | Check updates Police deployed outside Jamia campus “The incident occurred around 7:30-8 pm near gate 7. A group of students affiliated with the ABVP were putting up diyas and making rangolis for Diwali, which displeased another group of students. The other group wrecked the decorations, which led to a scuffle. Both sides engaged in sloganeering,” Deputy Commissioner of Police Southeast Ravi Kumar told The Indian Express. “Police were deployed to maintain the peace; they are stationed there for the night as a precautionary measure. Students were ordered to disperse and the crowd left by 9 pm.” Officials said the situation on Jamia campus is still being monitored though there have been no reports of any further disturbance. Videos of the ruckus being shared on social media show people chanting slogans during the event. (With inputs from agencies)

Clash breaks out on Jamia campus during Diwali celebration, police deployed

<p>Firing incident in Jamia has taken the sheen of the BJP government. What started as a protest reflecting the anxiety felt by the minority community has become a statement on what the Indian Constitution stands for. What was being ridiculed as an endless protest received a shot in its arm when a religious bigot fired a shot adjacent to the protest site, amplifying ugly face of reverse polarisation which the government is attempting to do because it cannot see beyond electoral politics.</p>

<p>As electoral politics has become the start and end of the government, anything which can deliver voters to the booth has become acceptable. It is for this reason no disciplinary action has been taken against Anurag Thakur and Parvesh Verma. That is the bad part.</p>

<p>The good part is that protests have been able to draw attention to the nuance of Gandhi’s politics. Earlier, Shaheen Bagh protesters came under attack for heckling the journalist and not letting them enter the venue. I, as a fellow journalist, disagree with this approach as protests cannot be exclusionary even if it means that reporters or editors hold a different view on the subject. They should have been allowed to report and move inside the venue.</p>

<p>But Thursday’s firing has changed all that. The firing is a rude reminder that BJP’s commitment to Gandhi’s politics seems limited to Rajghat or Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.</p>

<p>The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan was a masterstroke on part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He was able to break the biggest stigma which continues to hurt RSS and that being its ideology was behind assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.</p>

<p>By embracing Gandhi and taking him out of school textbooks and seminar halls, Modi was able to blunt Opposition’s ideological edge. Congress was not able to attack Modi because he utilised Gandhi as a campaign to mobilise people for important civic issues like cleanliness which struck a chord with the electorate.</p>

<p>It allowed BJP to ignore other facets of Gandhi’s politics especially his focus on Hindu-Muslim unity during his last days. The present event has almost reversed the wheel. The challenge posed by Shaheen Bagh is that it has snatched Gandhi’s imagination of India from Prime Minister who very carefully took it away from the Congress Party post-2014 Lok Sabha elections through multiple social campaigns. Today the most important aspect of Gandhi, which is peace and religious harmony, rests with the Shaheen Bagh protesters.</p>

<p>This should worry the Prime Minister as many would now challenge his practice of Gandhi as cosmetic and divorced from Gandhi’s real message. The violence blunts his incorporation of Gandhi into BJP-RSS discourse which has already absorbed a number of pre-colonial Congress leaders.</p>

<p>Shaheen Bagh protest should not be evaluated from the perspective of electoral impact. It would be a disservice. It should be seen from the perspective of right or wrong. It has brought the debate on Constitution and citizenship to the centrestage of Indian politics.</p>

<p>PM’s effort to bring Gandhi out of seminars and school books was a welcome move but by not embracing his approach on Hindu Muslim unity it will end up becoming his Achilles heel as Gandhi cannot be absorbed in bits and pieces.<br />
<br />
<em>(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)&nbsp;</em></p>


Firing incident in Jamia has taken the sheen of the BJP government. What started as a protest reflecting the anxiety felt by the minority community has become a statement on what the Indian Constitution stands for.

Firing incident in Jamia has taken the sheen of the BJP government. What started as a protest reflecting the anxiety felt by the minority community has become a statement on what the Indian Constitution stands for. What was being ridiculed as an endless protest received a shot in its arm when a religious bigot fired a shot adjacent to the protest site, amplifying ugly face of reverse polarisation which the government is attempting to do because it cannot see beyond electoral politics. As electoral politics has become the start and end of the government, anything which can deliver voters to the booth has become acceptable. It is for this reason no disciplinary action has been taken against Anurag Thakur and Parvesh Verma. That is the bad part. The good part is that protests have been able to draw attention to the nuance of Gandhi’s politics. Earlier, Shaheen Bagh protesters came under attack for heckling the journalist and not letting them enter the venue. I, as a fellow journalist, disagree with this approach as protests cannot be exclusionary even if it means that reporters or editors hold a different view on the subject. They should have been allowed to report and move inside the venue. But Thursday’s firing has changed all that. The firing is a rude reminder that BJP’s commitment to Gandhi’s politics seems limited to Rajghat or Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan was a masterstroke on part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He was able to break the biggest stigma which continues to hurt RSS and that being its ideology was behind assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. By embracing Gandhi and taking him out of school textbooks and seminar halls, Modi was able to blunt Opposition’s ideological edge. Congress was not able to attack Modi because he utilised Gandhi as a campaign to mobilise people for important civic issues like cleanliness which struck a chord with the electorate. It allowed BJP to ignore other facets of Gandhi’s politics especially his focus on Hindu-Muslim unity during his last days. The present event has almost reversed the wheel. The challenge posed by Shaheen Bagh is that it has snatched Gandhi’s imagination of India from Prime Minister who very carefully took it away from the Congress Party post-2014 Lok Sabha elections through multiple social campaigns. Today the most important aspect of Gandhi, which is peace and religious harmony, rests with the Shaheen Bagh protesters. This should worry the Prime Minister as many would now challenge his practice of Gandhi as cosmetic and divorced from Gandhi’s real message. The violence blunts his incorporation of Gandhi into BJP-RSS discourse which has already absorbed a number of pre-colonial Congress leaders. Shaheen Bagh protest should not be evaluated from the perspective of electoral impact. It would be a disservice. It should be seen from the perspective of right or wrong. It has brought the debate on Constitution and citizenship to the centrestage of Indian politics. PM’s effort to bring Gandhi out of seminars and school books was a welcome move but by not embracing his approach on Hindu Muslim unity it will end up becoming his Achilles heel as Gandhi cannot be absorbed in bits and pieces. (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Has Mahatma Gandhi become BJP’s Achilles heel?

<p>Hollywood star John Cusack joined several Bollywood actors and tweeted in solidarity of Jamia Milia University students. The ‘High Fidelity’ actor shared a video of the destruction by Delhi Police inside the washroom of the university campus and wrote ‘Solidarity’.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The video also shows several injured students sitting on the floor of the washroom, bleeding profusely.&nbsp;<br />
<br />
Cusack also shared photographs of California citizens protesting against the amended Citizenship Act.</p>

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<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Solidarity <a href="https://twitter.com/arnav_d?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@arnav_d</a>: Thank you John for speaking up. Thank you. <a href="https://t.co/LEpHMFACmM">https://t.co/LEpHMFACmM</a>”</p>
— John Cusack (@johncusack) <a href="https://twitter.com/johncusack/status/1206479763973513217?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 16, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<p dir="ltr" lang="en">California stands against <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CABBill2019?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CABBill2019</a>. I was humbled by the chance to join <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CABProtests?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CABProtests</a> in Santa Clara. There must have been 200 people there. Muslims. Kashmiris. Sikhs. Christians. Dalits. Hindus. Even me. We raised united voices against fascism.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CitizenshipBill?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CitizenshipBill</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CABPolitics?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CABPolitics</a> <a href="https://t.co/9e2f2m6N23">pic.twitter.com/9e2f2m6N23</a></p>
— Pieter Friedrich (@FriedrichPieter) <a href="https://twitter.com/FriedrichPieter/status/1206476808494841856?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 16, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<p>​​​​Several<a href="https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/anurag-kashyap-richa-chadha-anubhav-sinha-other-bollywood-celebs-condemn-police-brutality-over-citizenship-law-268472"> prominent Bollywood stars </a>have been tweeting since Monday morning in support of the student movement that has now spread across the country in various universities. Ayushmann Khurrana, Manoj Bajpayee, Taapsee Pannu, Richa Chadha, <a href="https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/rajkummar-rao-on-jamia-protests-strongly-condemn-violence-against-students-citizens-have-the-right-to-protest-peacefully-268521">Rajkummar Rao&nbsp;</a>and Aparna Sen are some of the celebrities who have condemned the violence that took place on Sunday which left several students of Jamia Milia University and Aligarh Muslim University injured.&nbsp;<br />
<br />
Earlier in the day, actress Sayani Gupta had shared a viral picture of Bollywood celebrities with PM Modi asking them to respond to the current chaos. Sharing the picture she wrote, "On behalf of the students of Jamia &amp; AMU request at least one of you to tweet or message Mr.Modi condemning this act of police brutality and violence against students. The time has come to speak up guys. Yes? No? May be? @RanveerOfficial @karanjohar @ayushmannk @RajkummarRao"</p>

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<p dir="ltr" lang="en">On behalf of the students of Jamia &amp; AMU request at least one of you to tweet or message Mr.Modi condemning this act of police brutality and violence against students. The time has come to speak up guys. Yes? No? May be?<a href="https://twitter.com/RanveerOfficial?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RanveerOfficial</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/karanjohar?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@karanjohar</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/ayushmannk?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ayushmannk</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/RajkummarRao?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RajkummarRao</a> <a href="https://t.co/6l5ky5zbNt">pic.twitter.com/6l5ky5zbNt</a></p>
— Sayani Gupta (@sayanigupta) <a href="https://twitter.com/sayanigupta/status/1206302403839946753?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 15, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<p><br />
Khurrana took to Twitter to share his thoughts on the protest and condemned any kind of violence and destruction of public property.&nbsp;<br />
On Sunday, clashes broke out between Delhi Police and students of Jamia Milia University that left several injured. The students have been protesting against the Citizen Amendment Bill that has been passed in the parliament recently.</p>

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<p dir="ltr" lang="en">This!🙏🏻 🇮🇳 <a href="https://t.co/X8qj9sCdEO">pic.twitter.com/X8qj9sCdEO</a></p>
— Ayushmann Khurrana (@ayushmannk) <a href="https://twitter.com/ayushmannk/status/1206561046351302658?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 16, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<p>Videos of Police brutally hitting unarmed students have been doing the rounds of the internet - which have been widely shared and condemned.&nbsp;</p>


Hollywood star John Cusack joined several Bollywood actors and tweeted in solidarity of Jamia Milia University students. The ‘High Fidelity’ actor shared a video of the destruction by Delhi Police inside the washroom of the university campus and wrote ‘Solidarity’.

Hollywood star John Cusack joined several Bollywood actors and tweeted in solidarity of Jamia Milia University students. The ‘High Fidelity’ actor shared a video of the destruction by Delhi Police inside the washroom of the university campus and wrote ‘Solidarity’. The video also shows several injured students sitting on the floor of the washroom, bleeding profusely. Cusack also shared photographs of California citizens protesting against the amended Citizenship Act. Solidarity @arnav_d: Thank you John for speaking up. Thank you. https://t.co/LEpHMFACmM” — John Cusack (@johncusack) December 16, 2019 × California stands against #CABBill2019. I was humbled by the chance to join #CABProtests in Santa Clara. There must have been 200 people there. Muslims. Kashmiris. Sikhs. Christians. Dalits. Hindus. Even me. We raised united voices against fascism.#CitizenshipBill #CABPolitics pic.twitter.com/9e2f2m6N23 — Pieter Friedrich (@FriedrichPieter) December 16, 2019 × Several prominent Bollywood stars have been tweeting since Monday morning in support of the student movement that has now spread across the country in various universities. Ayushmann Khurrana, Manoj Bajpayee, Taapsee Pannu, Richa Chadha, Rajkummar Rao and Aparna Sen are some of the celebrities who have condemned the violence that took place on Sunday which left several students of Jamia Milia University and Aligarh Muslim University injured. Earlier in the day, actress Sayani Gupta had shared a viral picture of Bollywood celebrities with PM Modi asking them to respond to the current chaos. Sharing the picture she wrote, "On behalf of the students of Jamia & AMU request at least one of you to tweet or message Mr.Modi condemning this act of police brutality and violence against students. The time has come to speak up guys. Yes? No? May be? @RanveerOfficial @karanjohar @ayushmannk @RajkummarRao" On behalf of the students of Jamia & AMU request at least one of you to tweet or message Mr.Modi condemning this act of police brutality and violence against students. The time has come to speak up guys. Yes? No? May be?@RanveerOfficial @karanjohar @ayushmannk @RajkummarRao pic.twitter.com/6l5ky5zbNt — Sayani Gupta (@sayanigupta) December 15, 2019 × Khurrana took to Twitter to share his thoughts on the protest and condemned any kind of violence and destruction of public property. On Sunday, clashes broke out between Delhi Police and students of Jamia Milia University that left several injured. The students have been protesting against the Citizen Amendment Bill that has been passed in the parliament recently. This!🙏🏻 🇮🇳 pic.twitter.com/X8qj9sCdEO — Ayushmann Khurrana (@ayushmannk) December 16, 2019 × Videos of Police brutally hitting unarmed students have been doing the rounds of the internet - which have been widely shared and condemned.

Solidarity: Hollywood star John Cusack tweets in support of student protest movement